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Queen’s Speech

My Lords, as we know, the gracious Speech refers to a draft Bill on reform of the House of Lords, but more experienced political pundits than myself tell me that it has absolutely no chance of getting through. First, this is a draft Bill and there is no chance of an actual Bill getting through in this Session. If the Conservative Party gains power, I am told that it will not bring forward proposals for House of Lords reform until its third term. As we all know, the policy of the Conservative Party in no way reflects the views of Members of the House of Lords in this House, let alone the country. The kind of strong arguments put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Grocott, are widely shared across this House and the country. If the Labour Party remains in power, it will be with only a small majority. It will not use up a huge amount of energy to drive House of Lords reform through this House against the opposition that has previously been shown. Does that mean that House of Lords reform will be stalled for another 100 years? Does this matter? Many of us believe that the House is working quite well—perhaps better than is has done before. Nevertheless, I wonder whether, like me, noble Lords have one or two worries. First, there is the sheer size of the House of Lords. If the Conservative Party wins the next election, at least 25 new Peers will have to be created to ensure a majority over the major opposition party. We are all living longer, so the House of Lords is inevitably getting bigger, with more Peers coming in. Is the size making it unworkable? Secondly, some noble Lords who were here on Wednesday will remember the remarkable speech by the noble Lord, Lord McNally. He coined a new term, which should be accompanied by gestures, when he said: ""‘Pouffe’ is what happens when a notable talent joins the Prime Minister’s Government ... They appear at the Dispatch Box; we all admire them—and then ‘pouffe’. The noble Lord, Lord Jones—‘pouffe’. The noble Lord, Lord Carter—‘pouffe’".—[Official Report, 18/11/09; col. 15.]" And so it went on. I am all in favour of talent being brought in to the House of Lords, and I am very glad to see the noble Lord, Lord West, because we very much admire his talent and are very glad that he is here. Long may he remain here and long may he remain on the Front Bench. However, the problem, as we know, is that some Ministers are here for a year or two and then suddenly disappear. It poses the question of whether noble Lords should be appointed for life. Given that we seem to be totally stalled on major reform of the House of Lords, we should return to the Wakeham report. The Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords, chaired so ably by the noble Lord, Lord Wakeham, and on which I had the great privilege of serving, made a number of proposals that could be taken very seriously even now, when radical reform appears to be stalled for a long time. The first suggestion—I know that this is shocking—is separation of the membership of the second House from the peerage. One proposal of the Wakeham report was that possession of a peerage should no longer be a necessary qualification for membership of the second Chamber, and that new Members should not necessarily be offered a peerage. People could be offered a peerage, but they would not have to be offered one. The second proposal that I shall draw attention to is in some ways no less radical. It is that membership of the second Chamber should be not for life, but for 15 years. Whether a person comes into the second Chamber by election or appointment, it should be or 15 years and not for life. It was interesting that although the members of the commission, when they started, had totally opposed views about whether the second Chamber should be appointed or elected, all were unanimous about these two proposals—separation from the peerage and appointments not for life but for a long term, say 15 years, with the possibility of renewal under exceptional circumstances. Although House of Lords reform has been stalled now for 100 years, there have been significant incremental changes over that period, such as the Parliament Act of 1911, the Salisbury convention, the Life Peerages Act 1958, the gradual phasing out of the hereditaries and the creation this year of the Supreme Court. My proposal is simple. Given that radical reform seems to be stalled, we should think in terms of more incremental reforms if we are not to wait for another 100 years. We need to look again at the Wakeham report. Whatever the House of Commons finally decides about composition—whether it is by election, appointment or some kind of hybrid as the Wakeham commission recommended—it will be compatible with separation from the peerage and appointments for a long term, say 15 years, rather than for life. These two proposals in the Wakeham commission report should be looked at again, given the fact that radical reform looks to be stalled for the next decade or two.